Bolted Straight Out of the Barn

What is the medical term for a person who does not process a simple message, a polite request? Surely there has to be one!

Someone at work has been annoying the hell out of me. I often look at her and wonder ‘why can’t you crawl back under the rock, you little vermin?’ Well, she is not little, she is fat. But that is rude to say so I don’t say it…..Oh yes, I just did, but that is in my blog and only to point out, paint the picture so to speak.

She thinks she is all smoking hot, with her fat person and her horse laugh, she is anything but.But we’ll let her bask in her fools’ paradise she has created for her. After all that’s all she’s got. Why do I sound so nasty? Oh yeah this is all repressed frustration, have to be cordial to her at work.

I have told the woman numerous times, what she says and does is annoying and truly irritating and can she please stop. Crudes do not understand a simple request so I had a heart to heart with a decent someone (more like vented my anger and frustration) and she promised to talk to the woman about it. Anyway that worked and she kept her crudeness under wraps. That was before the Christmas break.

Though the sight of her annoys me and her horse laugh freezes my brain cells, I thought I’ll start the new year with a clean slate and go to work with no grudges, and with a be bygones be bygones attitude. After all she did behave the last few days before Christmas. So there was no reason for me to believe it will revert.

I thought I am going to ignore her irritable habits and just try and be civil, not friends, just civil.

We exchanged pleasantries and I thought things are on the right track.

Well I am the delusional one to think you can tame wild two legged ones because it didn’t take long for the big fat mouth to open and be the annoying self again but I did my best to keep a straight face and not even say boo. Because I will look like a fool to keep requesting “can you please refrain from saying that, it is annoying?” Surely even dogs when told or trained to do something, do it…you don’t have to keep repeating, do you?

I had a feeling she could be jealous of me and this fact alluded by the one I vented with, sort of solidified that theory.

I honestly don’t know how to act in this situation…..what do you do with someone who just not a get a simple request to live and let live to the point of making the environment extremely unpleasant for me? After uttering her stupid remarks which she thinks is so funny- exemplified by the horse laugh that follows…. she doesn’t stop there, as soon as my back turns and even before I am out of hearing I could hear her sniggering to whoever is close by.

Over this long weekend I have been contemplating if I have enough to make a case of harassment and weighed the pros and cons of making such a complaint. Since I am the only one she has a problem with I am inclined to hint of racial vilification if I make the complaint. But that is taking the matter a notch further than I particularly want to go. The manager has no choice but to go through proper channels when a complaint of racial vilification is made…. and it will become a huge issue with independent mediators and later counselling for the two of us and I have to question if I want to go down that path. I don’t think I want that. Besides, racial vilification claim will not hold water as she never says anything remotely racial. Underline factor for her behaviour maybe that but that is conjecture and impossible to prove.

I really don’t know. I am at an impasse.How do you tackle a human with wild animal characteristics?

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15 comments so far

WOW! You really are ticked off this person… Living becomes such a chore when you have an anti-you rubbing against you like sandpaper. Hope everything sorts itself out soon, otherwise I might be reading about you in the paper 😛

Darwin is right. Only two things you can do.
Get down and dirty and have a go at her or ignore her completely. Keep it business like and do not utter a word on a personal level. Sooner or later she will get the msg.

You sure it’s a “human with wild animal characteristics?” and not an animal anthromorphed?

“a person who does not process a simple message, a polite request?”
Maybe it’s confusing to the said person because the message conveyed by your words might be different from the message sent by the voice and by the body(non linguistic cues) …wink/smile…
Then again maybe she has speech and language disabilities. any number of possibilities…

John,
Tell me about it! You only need one anti among many good people to make life unpleasant. The only way things will sort out is…… I heard on the grapevine that she applied for another job and went for an interview…………..so let’s be good
Samaritans and wish her well and hope she will really get that job : )

Darwin,
I can’t say snarky things, I usually walk away when someone is being nasty, occasionally something happens in the brain that I feel like retaliating, I don’t know what, perhaps personalities, but I don’t want to give the time of day to this particular person.
On Friday I did ignore her and looked down with no smile on my face and there were two other people present and they too remained stony faced.
Thanks

Damith,
I ignore her except for the civility when I come face to face with her. I even have my lunch before she comes to the lunchroom. It is summer and outside is hot and muggy so I prefer to stay cool & indoors otherwise I could’ve gone out to lunch.

Half Doctor
You have given me a lot to think about : ) From now on I am going to think she is an animal anthropmorphed. That way what she does would not surprise me. It won’t be hard as she resemble a wild animal to me. Thanks for that.

Thanks, Although I was talking about subscribing by e-mail, anything is better that nothing I guess. I find the first compliment thing hard to believe. Maybe I’m the first to tell it, but I’m sure many have had the same thought. I’m a software engineer so I browse mostly technical blogs and amidst all that your blog is a refreshing and a welcoming change.Luck in posting 🙂

oh dear… not a nice situation eh?
either just ignore her… tell her off.. or give her the taste of her own medicine! or rather, give her really smart remarks which would make her want to run miles away!! 🙂

Nishadha,
Now you’ve lost me. I didn’t understand about the email, when you said RSS I just asked my son to add RSS. It’s so easy when you are a mother, you get things done with least effort 🙂 But that also means I don’t learn things.

Jester,
Could be because comment moderation is activated ( I didn’t activate it, that’s how it is, may be there is a way to get rid of, but I can’t be bothered) from first time commenters. until I approve them they won’t show.
“First complement? No way!” Thanks, if that was a subtle compliment : P

LD,
Nothing has worked with this woman. I have ignored, told her what she says is annoying, others have told her not to. She must have thick wax or something
I am good at smart remarks,good comebacks but that is with people I like and when just laughing around.

Well, where i work, when people are really truly busy and when even the slightest thing can disturb them, they just say out loud “please be quite”. And generally it works.

I guess it is the culture of the work place.

So, can you perhaps say out loudly “can you please tone down, i need to do some work..” better still, if you want to, and be a bit sarcastic and say “some of us are trying to do some real work, you know?”

ha ha…

The final option is to give your resignation to the manager – and say the reason…

imo, you should not notch it up by brining in race in to the pic…

PS: sometimes, we need to put up with idiots, who has nothing in their life, and who can only get pleasure from making other’s unhappy 😥